Less than a month after his first criminal referral letter against Lisa Cook, Trump-appointed federal official Bill Pulte sent a second one against the member of the Federal Reserve System board of governors.
“As Director of the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency,” Pulte wrote in an Aug. 28 letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Special Attorney Edward Martin, “I reiterate the referral on August 15, 2025, and provide new information concerning a 3rd property for Lisa D. Cook (‘Cook’) and what appears to be multiple false representations to the United States Government by Cook while she was a Governor of the Federal Reserve.”
In a statement that Fox News Digital was able to get on Friday, Cook’s lawyer, Abbe David Lowell of Lowell & Associates, reacted to what he called a “smear campaign.”
“This is an obvious smear campaign aimed at discrediting Gov. Cook by a political operative who has taken to social media more than 30 times in the last two days and demanded her removal before any review of the facts or evidence,” the attorney asserted in the statement. “Nothing in these vague, unsubstantiated allegations has any relevance to Gov Cook’s role at the Federal Reserve, and they in no way justify her removal from the Board.”
Trump Admin Sets the Tone
Fox News Digital did not receive a response from the Fed regarding the issue.
In part, Cook allegedly stated in a 2021 mortgage agreement for a Michigan property that the property would be her principal residence, but two weeks later stated in a mortgage agreement for a Georgia condominium that the property would be her primary residence, according to Pulte’s first criminal referral letter earlier this month.
According to Pulte’s second criminal referral letter, Cook allegedly signed a mortgage agreement for a condominium in Massachusetts in April 2021, claiming it was her second home. However, later in 2021 and later years, Cook told the U.S. government that the property was an investment/rental.
Between Pulte’s criminal referral letters dated August 15 and August 28, earlier this week, President Donald Trump wrote a letter on Truth Social stating that he was dismissing Cook from her Fed position.
“The Federal Reserve Act provides that you may be removed, at my discretion, for cause,” he asserted in the letter. “I have determined that there is sufficient cause to remove you from your position.”
Cook has replied by launching a legal fight, refusing to accept Trump’s attempt to terminate her.
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